My taxes went up over $500 last year and another $500 this year, and this council and the exempt staff want to spend the already-approved $8,500 and a further $190,000 to change our moniker.
I would rather they spend money on a filtration system for city hall as, obviously, the cannabis fumes are affecting any form of common sense that I expect from councillors and the high-priced help.
Apparently, the embarrassing approval of the plastic cube at a cost of $50,000 and then a flip-flop didn’t resonate with them. Please, council, just fill the potholes and collect the garbage.
What do you expect when you hire staff with new titles such as manager of “civic engagements”? I thought that was the council’s job. Rightfully, the staff is eager to do something rather than sit on their hands. How many of the exempt staff actually live in Mission?
Who are the benefactors of this proposed name change? The report from staff indicates a more “progressive municipality can be accomplished.”
Do we want to emulate what has happened in Vancouver, where the pioneers over the last 100 years built and paid for the capital costs of infrastructure such as parks, waterworks, universities and bridges?
Council, I forbid you to follow this recipe for disaster. Mission is already on the map as the homes and properties are flying off the shelves at stupid prices fueled by the greed of some speculators and people from other countries parking their possibly dirty money here.
Council, please respect the taxpayers and their ability to pay and see their children able to live here in the future, to enjoy the amenities their forefathers built.
P.S. Did councillors, as was suggested, pay out of their own pockets the $1,000 cost of the bungled cube and will they pay $8,500 if this moniker fails?
T.B. Mortimer
Mission